Despite defeat the Emmanuel lads can be very pleased with their performance yesterday as they matched a strong, and now very familiar Toton outfit.
The fourth meeting between the 2 sides so far this season, with a 5th to come, was perhaps the best match of the lot with goals and excitment throughout. Having nearly fallen asleep last week and Ed completeing several chapters of his book it was great to see some real spark and belief in the team again after a difficult start to the season. Summer signings and more recent additions Rhys, Vishal, Jack and Tom are all beginning to gel, with both Tom and Vishal making their debuts yesterday. The team is beginning to look more balanced and there are strong players competing for each position.
The match itself started well, for about 1 minute, in which Emmanuel attacked down the right. Then with their first attack Toton got a penalty for handball which seemed a little harsh but we have a great ref in Ali so we'll have to give him the benefit of the our doubt but being a referee he was probably wrong (joke by the way). Toton scored despite the best efforts of Vishal in goal and we were 1-0 down. 0-1 quickly became 0-2 and I can't remember how so let's move on to the surreal bit...
After winning the crossbar challenge competition to see who would be awarded the 3 goals against pandemic Donington you would think that Jubed would be finished scoring for the season with his 3 fictional goals. Normally at right back the opportunity rarely arises to get many shots on goal for the miniture wonder but after my Sunday lunch last week I had a voice in my head that kept saying "play Jubed left wing...play Jubed left wing". There were no mental health practioners available on the Monday so I decided to run with it and made my decision early in the week. So, we were playing with a right footed defender, who can't cross on his right foot, on the left wing. Makes sense now. What happened next tells me that I should listen to the voices in my head more often, well most of them anyway. Jubed's instructions were that if the ball is on the right he should make a run to the back post in anticipation of Patryk's excellent crossing. So, 2 crosses, 2 well timed runs, and 2 Jubed celebtrations later we were back on level terms and the voices in my head were saying told you so. 2-2.
Emmanuel continued to press but Toton are a strong outfit this season and after a needless corner was given away the entire defence decided to zonally mark the same zone leaving a Toton player to run freely into the area and head it in. 2-3. Half time.
The second half started in a similar fashion with some comedy defender where Jabed appeared to slip on a banana skin or maybe a dead hedgehog, or maybe he just did something stupid and went to ground to early in his own box. Another player was allowed to turn and dance through and finish. 2-4 and all the effort and good play had been undone.
So, cue voices in head..."send on Berbajohn, he'll score a goal". I did just that and a few minutes later it was 3-4 after John controlled the ball in the box, fooled all the defenders with a silky touch and calm turn and passed the ball into the Toton net. Great goal, and a great response to being on the bench this week. John came on and changed the game back in our favour, showing not only his quality but his character.
Unfortuntely despite throwing everything at Toton we just couldn't find that 4th goal. We never quite found the right pass, or created a really clear chance until the last minute when the width of a post seperated us from extra time and defeat. Seeing that ball bounce back into the keepers arms was heartbreaking as the effort was so fantastic that we deserved to take the game further. But Toton are a really good side this year and again we were seperated by a single goal.
Some real positives were the performance of the back four with Rob, Rhys, Jabed and Dan doing exceptionally well to stop some dangerous and quick attackers. Rhys has been a fantastic addition to the Emmanuel squad and brings some aggression and steel that was much needed. Well Done Rhys. Jabed was his normal assured self (apart from the dumbass mistake after half time) and Rob and Dan did excellently in the fullback positions with Dan putting in a man of the match performance against one of Toton's strongest players. Taku had an excellent game in the first half and Tom showed some good touches and potential when he came on. Jack once again, despite not scoring worked hard throughout and new keeper Vishal had an outstanding game and should prove to be a great signing.
Overall, well done lads. There is always room to improve and we certainly have another couple of gears to shift through but if the work rate and performances are similar to yesterdays then we can look forward, with hard work, to doing really well for the rest of the season.
Goals: Jubed 2, Berbajohn 1
Man of the Match: Dan "The Man" Callan.
Squad: Maini, Barrow, Willey, Al-Zubayel, Callan, Trebski, Timson, Karemba, Rahman, Gee, Ball, Dewart, Paul, Parton
1 comment:
Well played every1.
Next year boys Next year... ;)
Post a Comment